vorus
Well-Known Member
Hey all!
This is my first grow in many years, my first-ever grow in RDWC, even indoors... I got a 10 pack of Dr. Krippling's Incredible Bulk from seedsman, and received a 3x White Widow and 3x Blueberry as freebies but decided to go with 6 of Incredible Bulk's to make things easier to control growing a single strain.
I built the 6 plants RDWC system using Gary's instructions on youtube from PA Hydroponics, you can watch the video here if you'd like. Shout out to him!
Here's what it looks like:
Those fittings in between are slightly less than 1.5 inches and I know that might cause me some troubles with the roots later on but I couldn't find any bigger and have seen people do successful harvests with even less, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed about that. Each reservoir is 5 gallons, but with the net pods sitting an inch above the water, I guess they'll be filled with around 4 gallons of water. Maybe slightly more?
For the water circulation, I could only afford a Sobo brand, model WP-7200, which claims 5500lt/h, but I found it a huge huge lie! I know the water should be circulated around 7 times per hour but this shit will circulate only around 3-3.5 times an hour. So keeping my fingers crossed about that as well... And the worst part is it has to sit in water, which adds to the temperature.
And thinking that a fast circulation would save me from using air stones (it is actually a thing, with fallponics, you can look it up), I didn't drain holes for air hoses but after seeing this shitty performance I went back to an air stone included plan.
Here's my list of equipment besides above;
And the part most people here will hate me for........
*drum rolls*
I'll be using a wide list of Advanced Nutrients products all through the grow. I know many consider the brand a rip-off, and I've also been advised that I can do the same using much cheaper products with a little more work. BUT I'm a total noob right now and I decided to go that way maybe in my later grows...
For the vegetation period here's what I'll go with:
Ok so here we go....
------------
On February 25'th I took 6 random seeds and dropped them in 3% Hydrogen Peroxide for 10 minutes.
I later diluted that solution to 0.15% H2O2 with Ph balanced RO Water and let them sit in a warm dark place for the next 18 hours.
None of the seeds sank or popped open except for 1. But despite the beliefs, that doesn't mean anything...
Next day, I soaked my 2" rockwool cubes in 5.6 Ph balanced water briefly and planted the seeds in them, and got them all in a propagator with the lid closed. Left them to sit in there at around 77 degrees and 99Rh, in total darkness with occasional airflow.
---
3 days later on February 28th, they started showing first signs of life, trying to poke. So I turned on one of the LEDs in VEG mode, at 30 inches above.
---
March 1'st, this is the day I'll consider DAY 1, as they all have sprouted. Lowered their humidity to between 65-85 and their temperature to around 75. Still using the dome lid, with open ventilation holes.
But there was something weird going on and they didn't seem healthy.
So I consulted in the forum and been told I might be drowning them, the lights might be too close for their taste and so on but the general consensus was they seemed fine and probably will be okay. So I cut off watering a bit and remove that rug underneath them in this silly propagator (it doesn't have canals at the bottom but is plain, and they put that rug there to keep moisture I guess), and moved to lights up even higher.
---
DAY 2
They seem to be doing better, except for 1 (which is weirdly the one that popped open in water!), but seem a bit too stretchy as you can see... That is almost 2 inches! So I lower the lights down to about 29 inches.
Sorry about that color, lol...
Oh and I also curled up some rubber band to sit the rockwools on, for drainage.
---
DAY 3
That little girl seems like she will make it too...
They still seem a bit stretchy so I lowered the lights even more. The meter above reads 60Rh and 80f. I removed the dome lid and started to blow a fan on them.
I added 2ml/l of Voodoo Juice in their feeding water.
Same day I noticed a white dust forming on my blowing fan, propagator and some other equipment. I was worried that powdery mildew struck me this early... Cleaned everything with peroxide and moved the girls back in. Sprayed them with a very diluted peroxide solution as well.
---
DAY 6
The same dust returned... and I found out that ultrasonic humidifiers tend to produce this white dust when filled with regular tap water if the water has too much calcium in it. :facepalm here:
There is no dust after switching to RO water in humidifiers as well.
The girls seem to be happy.
If you noticed, there's a little browning on one of the cotyledons in the picture, but that caused no trouble later on and I still have no clue what caused it.
I added 0.5ml of both Sensi Grow A & B to their 1.5Lt feeding water bottle. That is very light and don't think will hurt them.
There is root growth under the rockwools but they are drying out after a few days of not being in the water. So I need to move them in hydrotons and rdwc asap I guess.
---
DAY 7
The girls are now transplanted. The water level is very close to the net pots, they all have a layer of hydroton at the bottom. The bubbling water splashes to the pots. Once the roots are developed well, I will lower the water a bit more.
I believe there's a little more than 130LT of water in the system, can't know for sure though.
I calculated the nutrient suggestion of Advanced Nutrients for 120LT of water and roughly mixed half dose in the system.
I guess they'll be ready for this much once their roots can actually touch the water. I'll keep top feeding with the weaker solution until then.
I doubled the LED's as intented and they're currently 24 inches above the plants and working in VEG mode only. I'll switch the BLOOM on in a few weeks and probably move them a bit higher to be careful about increased PAR.
The setup looks like this (the picture is from a later date actually):
My intake fan blows from the lower right hole you see. I later thought I should have switched the sides of intake and extraction fans, as I'll be placing my AC unit in left corner of the tent. But I guess it's a bit too late for that now... let's see how this turns out.
---
DAY 10
The second set of leaves are growing well. Some better, some worse... but they all are growing. Still no signs of roots reaching down for water. That got me a bit frustrated but will have to wait
I'm having a hard time keeping the temperature low, and it's still cold weather. Summer will be hard, I'll definitely need that AC soon. And hopefully, that'll cool my res temp as well so I'll stay clear of root rot.
Although the lights are LED, they add at least 8-9 degrees F to the temperature.
---
I'll keep on updating this thread as much as possible. Thanks for reading
This is my first grow in many years, my first-ever grow in RDWC, even indoors... I got a 10 pack of Dr. Krippling's Incredible Bulk from seedsman, and received a 3x White Widow and 3x Blueberry as freebies but decided to go with 6 of Incredible Bulk's to make things easier to control growing a single strain.
I built the 6 plants RDWC system using Gary's instructions on youtube from PA Hydroponics, you can watch the video here if you'd like. Shout out to him!
Here's what it looks like:
Those fittings in between are slightly less than 1.5 inches and I know that might cause me some troubles with the roots later on but I couldn't find any bigger and have seen people do successful harvests with even less, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed about that. Each reservoir is 5 gallons, but with the net pods sitting an inch above the water, I guess they'll be filled with around 4 gallons of water. Maybe slightly more?
For the water circulation, I could only afford a Sobo brand, model WP-7200, which claims 5500lt/h, but I found it a huge huge lie! I know the water should be circulated around 7 times per hour but this shit will circulate only around 3-3.5 times an hour. So keeping my fingers crossed about that as well... And the worst part is it has to sit in water, which adds to the temperature.
And thinking that a fast circulation would save me from using air stones (it is actually a thing, with fallponics, you can look it up), I didn't drain holes for air hoses but after seeing this shitty performance I went back to an air stone included plan.
Here's my list of equipment besides above;
- 4x8 Grow Tent
- 2x King Plus 1500W LED Grow Lights
- A strong extraction fan with carbon filter
- A weak intake fan (unfortunately)
- 2x Humidifiers
- Dehumidifier
- 1x Fan (will add another)
- ...and I'll get a portable AC unit next week because it seems I'll be in trouble with heat
And the part most people here will hate me for........
*drum rolls*
I'll be using a wide list of Advanced Nutrients products all through the grow. I know many consider the brand a rip-off, and I've also been advised that I can do the same using much cheaper products with a little more work. BUT I'm a total noob right now and I decided to go that way maybe in my later grows...
For the vegetation period here's what I'll go with:
- Sensi Grow A&B
- B-52
- Voodoo Juice
Ok so here we go....
------------
On February 25'th I took 6 random seeds and dropped them in 3% Hydrogen Peroxide for 10 minutes.
I later diluted that solution to 0.15% H2O2 with Ph balanced RO Water and let them sit in a warm dark place for the next 18 hours.
None of the seeds sank or popped open except for 1. But despite the beliefs, that doesn't mean anything...
Next day, I soaked my 2" rockwool cubes in 5.6 Ph balanced water briefly and planted the seeds in them, and got them all in a propagator with the lid closed. Left them to sit in there at around 77 degrees and 99Rh, in total darkness with occasional airflow.
---
3 days later on February 28th, they started showing first signs of life, trying to poke. So I turned on one of the LEDs in VEG mode, at 30 inches above.
---
March 1'st, this is the day I'll consider DAY 1, as they all have sprouted. Lowered their humidity to between 65-85 and their temperature to around 75. Still using the dome lid, with open ventilation holes.
But there was something weird going on and they didn't seem healthy.
So I consulted in the forum and been told I might be drowning them, the lights might be too close for their taste and so on but the general consensus was they seemed fine and probably will be okay. So I cut off watering a bit and remove that rug underneath them in this silly propagator (it doesn't have canals at the bottom but is plain, and they put that rug there to keep moisture I guess), and moved to lights up even higher.
---
DAY 2
They seem to be doing better, except for 1 (which is weirdly the one that popped open in water!), but seem a bit too stretchy as you can see... That is almost 2 inches! So I lower the lights down to about 29 inches.
Sorry about that color, lol...
Oh and I also curled up some rubber band to sit the rockwools on, for drainage.
---
DAY 3
That little girl seems like she will make it too...
They still seem a bit stretchy so I lowered the lights even more. The meter above reads 60Rh and 80f. I removed the dome lid and started to blow a fan on them.
I added 2ml/l of Voodoo Juice in their feeding water.
Same day I noticed a white dust forming on my blowing fan, propagator and some other equipment. I was worried that powdery mildew struck me this early... Cleaned everything with peroxide and moved the girls back in. Sprayed them with a very diluted peroxide solution as well.
---
DAY 6
The same dust returned... and I found out that ultrasonic humidifiers tend to produce this white dust when filled with regular tap water if the water has too much calcium in it. :facepalm here:
There is no dust after switching to RO water in humidifiers as well.
The girls seem to be happy.
If you noticed, there's a little browning on one of the cotyledons in the picture, but that caused no trouble later on and I still have no clue what caused it.
I added 0.5ml of both Sensi Grow A & B to their 1.5Lt feeding water bottle. That is very light and don't think will hurt them.
There is root growth under the rockwools but they are drying out after a few days of not being in the water. So I need to move them in hydrotons and rdwc asap I guess.
---
DAY 7
The girls are now transplanted. The water level is very close to the net pots, they all have a layer of hydroton at the bottom. The bubbling water splashes to the pots. Once the roots are developed well, I will lower the water a bit more.
I believe there's a little more than 130LT of water in the system, can't know for sure though.
I calculated the nutrient suggestion of Advanced Nutrients for 120LT of water and roughly mixed half dose in the system.
- Sensi Grow A = 67ml
- Sensi Grow B = 70ml
- B-52 = 120ml
- Voodoo Juice = 200ml
- PPM= around 240-250
I guess they'll be ready for this much once their roots can actually touch the water. I'll keep top feeding with the weaker solution until then.
I doubled the LED's as intented and they're currently 24 inches above the plants and working in VEG mode only. I'll switch the BLOOM on in a few weeks and probably move them a bit higher to be careful about increased PAR.
The setup looks like this (the picture is from a later date actually):
My intake fan blows from the lower right hole you see. I later thought I should have switched the sides of intake and extraction fans, as I'll be placing my AC unit in left corner of the tent. But I guess it's a bit too late for that now... let's see how this turns out.
---
DAY 10
The second set of leaves are growing well. Some better, some worse... but they all are growing. Still no signs of roots reaching down for water. That got me a bit frustrated but will have to wait
I'm having a hard time keeping the temperature low, and it's still cold weather. Summer will be hard, I'll definitely need that AC soon. And hopefully, that'll cool my res temp as well so I'll stay clear of root rot.
Although the lights are LED, they add at least 8-9 degrees F to the temperature.
---
I'll keep on updating this thread as much as possible. Thanks for reading
Got no budget atm, maybe only after 2 harvests... if they make it that far of course. I've read perfect reviews about these lights so I bought them but now I'm questioning that of course after the heat issue and your comment 
